


In the Silence, I Hear You

by softsilences



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Drabble, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, One Shot, Sweet, otayuri - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-16 21:53:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9291140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softsilences/pseuds/softsilences
Summary: It’s been always like this with them—the silence one finds suffocating when stuck in an elevator ride with a stranger suddenly carrying more words than any dictionary can (well, more words than Lilia’s lectures to bad students carry, at least).





	

They pass through an archway, with Yurio ducking as if he would have been hit if he hadn’t, his forehead pressing against the material of Otabek’s coat.

“Where are we going?” Yurio asks, his voice louder than usual to make sure Otabek hears him amidst the loud groan of the motorbike and the sound of their garments trembling against the wind.

They have been riding for nearly twenty minutes, and the sun had started to peek out again from the clouds that had blocked it and had poured rain over the streets moments before Otabek showed up at Yurio’s house.

Perhaps the damp streets are the reason Otabek is driving his motorbike a lot slower than usual, Yurio thinks.

Otabek answers just after he drives them through another archway, the pavement beneath them abruptly changing from asphalt to grass. “You’ll see in a bit,” he says.

Yurio doesn’t say anything back. He knows Otabek doesn’t need to hear any acknowledgement from him to know he was listening. It’s been always like this with them—the silence one finds suffocating when stuck in an elevator ride with a stranger suddenly carrying more words than any dictionary can (well, more words than Lilia’s lectures to bad students carry, at least).

‘In a bit’, Yurio finds out shortly, involves Otabek parking under an evergreen tree before urging Yurio to follow him through a wide field of grass.

Yurio tails Otabek without question, wincing slightly when his right foot sinks in the mud.

The rain earlier had turned the ground beneath them mushy, the air cold and smelling of dew. And Yurio would have thought Otabek brought them here for a picnic if it weren’t for the scarcity of people around the area and the fact that they had just passed one—no, three—headstones.

“Oh,” Yurio mutters, earning him a look from Otabek that spoke of ‘concern’ to Yurio but would otherwise be seen as indifference by others.

“Suppose you didn’t see the sign on one of the archways?”

“No,” Yurio quickly answers back, leaving out the matter about him spending more time keeping his head low and pressing his head against Otabek’s back than looking at where they were going earlier during the ride. “I didn’t,” he continues.

Otabek hums.

They continue walking, and by the time they stop at an area quite far away from the headstones, the sun had already come out completely. But the air around the place remained cool, the silence now broken intermittently by the sound of birds chirping and flitting from one tree to another.

Yurio watches as Otabek walks forward, notes how Otabek seemed to be looking for something inside his coat before settling down with one knee on the ground near a spot underneath another evergreen tree that was larger than the one where they had parked.

Inching closer, Yurio stops to stand beside Otabek. “What’re you doing?” he asks, a tone of teasing evident in his voice, but he silences himself as soon as he sees the look on Otabek’s face.

On the grass, Otabek had laid out a small candle and three small white flowers (Yurio didn’t know what they were called) tied together at their stems with a blue ribbon. Yurio took a closer look and found that they were for the small blank headstone which stood almost hidden amongst the grass growing near the tree’s base.

“Yegor,” Otabek starts, “He was a hamster given to me by my grandfather when he’d heard I was moving someplace near the studio.”

Almost as if he’d been taken aback by the gentle lilt in Otabek’s voice, Yurio fixes himself and stands straight. “Oh,” he manages to say. “That’s a nice name for a pet.”

Otabek smiles weakly, his eyes still fixed on the space between the makeshift tombstone and the flowers he’d brought.

Like this—with the mosaic of shadows that the light filtering through the leaves had painted on Otabek’s face—Yurio realizes that he’d never seen Otabek this vulnerable before.

“Had him for almost four years... I got so busy one time. I think you know the story,” Otabek continues, still smiling, though he seemed to heave in more air than his lungs could take every time he paused, “He was a lot like my grandfather. Loved carrots more than anything.”

Putting his hands inside the pockets of his coat, Yurio nods solemnly. “May the earth be soft to him,” he says, to which Otabek responded with a new warmth to his smile.

And they stayed there in silence, waiting until the small candle that Otabek had brought went out before walking back towards the tree where they had parked.

 “Sorry I had to bring you all the way here,” Otabek suddenly says.

“Don’t worry,” Yurio reassures him, “I needed some fresh air, anyway.”

“Thought so too,” Otabek says, his head tipping back as if to look at Yurio, “That you needed some fresh air. Practice looks like it has been tough, after all.”

Suddenly becoming self-conscious, Yurio fixes his eyes on his feet. “T-Thanks.”

The earth beneath them had now turned back to solid, and Yurio vaguely thinks about the way the warm earth hugs the roots of trees and everything beneath and within it. The thought crosses him as comforting.

“Hey, Otabek,” Yurio tries.

Otabek hums.

“Ever thought of getting another pet?”

There’s a pause, both of them still walking, before Otabek lets out a soft laugh, “Yeah. But where I’m staying... they don’t allow pets.”

A soft breeze blows from behind them, and Yurio follows his sudden urge to finally catch up to Otabek and walk beside him.

“Then, let me keep it. I’m sure Lilia wouldn’t mind,” he says, peering up at Otabek who was now wearing the usual look on his face. “How about it? Want to pass by a pet shop, then?” Yurio continues.

And Otabek doesn’t say anything, but Yurio grins because whatever it is about Otabek—or about them—he knows Otabek’s answer is a silent ‘yes’.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> this was written for a one-word prompt thing I did on **[twitter](https://twitter.com/anachronicoffee)**!
> 
> the prompt used for this fic was "vulnerable"


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